Eras
Who was the most powerful artist in a year, who dominated a decade, who held #1 the longest. Every figure is a defined metric summed or maximised over a date range of stored weekly rows — nothing is weighted by opinion.
Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart combined, weighted · UK Singles Chart data ends Aug 1, 2025 · How it works
Each week an artist's share is the weighted mean of their Power Share across Billboard Hot 100 ×1 and UK Singles Chart ×0.45 (weights ∝ √population, US = 1). The divisor is every chart's weight, so a number one is worth the same share in any era — and a week before every chart exists, or after one's data ends, sums to less than 100.
UK Singles Chart data runs to Aug 1, 2025; later weeks combine the Billboard Hot 100 only, so their shares — and the most recent years' Era Power — are lower than a full week's would be.
Leader of every year
Column height = the leader's average Power Share over the period. Click a column to explore that range.
- The Beatles4 periods
- Madonna3 periods
- Frankie Laine2 periods
- Elvis Presley2 periods
- Michael Jackson2 periods
- Elton John2 periods
- Bee Gees2 periods
- TLC2 periods
- Destiny's Child2 periods
- Bruno Mars2 periods
- The Weeknd2 periods
- Drake2 periods
- Bing Crosby1 period
- Ruby Murray1 period
- Bill Haley And His Comets1 period
- The Everly Brothers1 period
- Paul Anka1 period
- Connie Francis1 period
- Chubby Checker1 period
- Roy Orbison1 period
- The Monkees1 period
- Creedence Clearwater Revival1 period
- Jackson 51 period
- Carpenters1 period
- Eagles1 period
- Fleetwood Mac1 period
- Donna Summer1 period
- Queen1 period
- Daryl Hall John Oates1 period
- John Cougar1 period
- Lionel Richie1 period
- George Michael1 period
- Bobby Brown1 period
- Janet Jackson1 period
- Mariah Carey1 period
- Boyz II Men1 period
- Whitney Houston1 period
- Ace Of Base1 period
- Celine Dion1 period
- Spice Girls1 period
- Savage Garden1 period
- Ashanti1 period
- 50 Cent1 period
- Usher1 period
- Kelly Clarkson1 period
- Chris Brown1 period
- Fergie1 period
- Rihanna1 period
- Lady Gaga1 period
- Ke$ha1 period
- Flo Rida1 period
- Sam Smith1 period
- Ed Sheeran1 period
- Post Malone1 period
- Olivia Rodrigo1 period
- Harry Styles1 period
- Taylor Swift1 period
- Sabrina Carpenter1 period
- Morgan Wallen1 period
- Ella Langley1 period
Leaders in 1983
Jan 1, 1983 → Dec 31, 1983 · 53 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Michael Jackson154
- 2Culture Club117
- 3Lionel Richie96
- 4Men At Work92
- 5Duran Duran86
- 6Billy Joel83
- 7The Police81
- 8David Bowie78
- 9Daryl Hall John Oates76
- 10Eurythmics65
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jackson | 154 | 2.91% | 5.15% | 3.69% | 19 | 35 | 53 |
| 2 | Culture Club | 117 | 2.21% | 3.86% | 2.69% | 1 | 24 | 53 |
| 3 | Lionel Richie | 96 | 1.81% | 3.65% | 2.79% | 0 | 15 | 46 |
| 4 | Men At Work | 92 | 1.73% | 3.63% | 2.76% | 7 | 14 | 48 |
| 5 | Duran Duran | 86 | 1.63% | 3.77% | 2.35% | 0 | 8 | 50 |
| 6 | Billy Joel | 83 | 1.56% | 3.90% | 3.17% | 9 | 16 | 41 |
| 7 | The Police | 81 | 1.52% | 3.52% | 2.68% | 10 | 21 | 33 |
| 8 | David Bowie | 78 | 1.48% | 3.72% | 2.50% | 1 | 12 | 43 |
| 9 | Daryl Hall John Oates | 76 | 1.43% | 2.69% | 1.97% | 0 | 5 | 43 |
| 10 | Eurythmics | 65 | 1.23% | 3.26% | 2.14% | 3 | 9 | 49 |
| 11 | Irene Cara | 65 | 1.22% | 3.54% | 2.48% | 2 | 13 | 36 |
| 12 | Prince | 60 | 1.14% | 2.26% | 1.58% | 0 | 2 | 53 |
| 13 | Journey | 56 | 1.06% | 2.38% | 1.65% | 0 | 0 | 48 |
| 14 | Stray Cats | 54 | 1.01% | 2.41% | 1.79% | 0 | 2 | 41 |
| 15 | Elton John | 53 | 0.99% | 2.43% | 1.57% | 0 | 1 | 37 |
| 16 | Laura Branigan | 51 | 0.97% | 2.42% | 1.99% | 0 | 2 | 46 |
| 17 | Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | 51 | 0.96% | 2.67% | 1.91% | 0 | 6 | 42 |
| 18 | Toto | 49 | 0.92% | 3.15% | 2.00% | 0 | 5 | 32 |
| 19 | Donna Summer | 48 | 0.91% | 2.29% | 1.76% | 0 | 5 | 42 |
| 20 | Styx | 48 | 0.90% | 2.85% | 1.91% | 0 | 2 | 33 |
| 21 | Spandau Ballet | 48 | 0.90% | 2.24% | 1.67% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 22 | Bonnie Tyler | 47 | 0.89% | 2.48% | 1.81% | 0 | 9 | 43 |
| 23 | Madness | 45 | 0.85% | 2.01% | 1.41% | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| 24 | Naked Eyes | 42 | 0.79% | 1.95% | 1.30% | 0 | 0 | 43 |
| 25 | Kajagoogoo | 42 | 0.79% | 2.31% | 1.56% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 26 | Eddy Grant | 41 | 0.78% | 2.39% | 1.71% | 0 | 1 | 45 |
| 27 | Rick Springfield | 40 | 0.76% | 1.88% | 1.21% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 28 | Pat Benatar | 39 | 0.73% | 2.16% | 1.44% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 29 | The Fixx | 37 | 0.70% | 2.22% | 1.55% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 30 | Kenny Rogers | 37 | 0.70% | 1.46% | 1.09% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 31 | Stevie Nicks | 36 | 0.68% | 2.13% | 1.32% | 0 | 1 | 31 |
| 32 | Michael Sembello | 36 | 0.68% | 2.72% | 1.81% | 0 | 7 | 26 |
| 33 | Sheena Easton | 35 | 0.66% | 1.87% | 1.22% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 34 | Bryan Adams | 35 | 0.65% | 1.81% | 1.20% | 0 | 0 | 37 |
| 35 | The Human League | 35 | 0.65% | 1.93% | 1.30% | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| 36 | Men Without Hats | 35 | 0.65% | 2.67% | 1.80% | 0 | 7 | 28 |
| 37 | Rod Stewart | 35 | 0.65% | 2.49% | 1.44% | 0 | 2 | 30 |
| 38 | Def Leppard | 34 | 0.65% | 1.69% | 1.11% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 39 | Air Supply | 34 | 0.63% | 2.47% | 1.60% | 0 | 3 | 30 |
| 40 | Sergio Mendes | 31 | 0.59% | 2.47% | 1.61% | 0 | 2 | 25 |
| 41 | Debarge | 31 | 0.58% | 1.42% | 1.01% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 42 | Thompson Twins | 30 | 0.57% | 1.48% | 0.99% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 43 | Phil Collins | 30 | 0.56% | 2.83% | 1.88% | 0 | 7 | 21 |
| 44 | The Kinks | 29 | 0.55% | 2.13% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 27 |
| 45 | Greg Kihn Band | 29 | 0.55% | 2.44% | 1.56% | 0 | 1 | 24 |
| 46 | Pretenders | 29 | 0.54% | 2.15% | 1.35% | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| 47 | Dexys Midnight Runners | 28 | 0.53% | 2.51% | 1.56% | 0 | 3 | 23 |
| 48 | Little River Band | 28 | 0.52% | 1.73% | 1.19% | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| 49 | Thomas Dolby | 28 | 0.52% | 2.18% | 1.50% | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| 50 | Wham! | 27 | 0.51% | 1.06% | 0.76% | 0 | 0 | 40 |